About investing, making money & financial freedom

Menu

A Change in Course – Quitting my Job and on to The Next

In the past few weeks, I hadn’t had much focus on writing blog posts anymore. I had to focus on some new possibilities which would make a far greater impact on my way of living. One of them was the search for a new job, a pretty time-consuming thing to do. Since a few months, I have been focusing more on a new career move.

Finding the next step would mean 2 things: I would have the opportunity to find something I find more challenging and worthwhile (more than I do now) and changing jobs mostly entails a bigger increase in a paycheck as well!

In my short career so far, I’ve learned one thing that has become important to me. Once you hit a level of certain comfort in your job, it means you have it all under control. You know what you’re doing, people respect your experience and the way of working is getting easier and easier because you have seen it all before. Sounding nice eh?

Well, that feeling is my signal that I need to leave that job and find another.

“Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered you will never grow.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

When I start feeling comfortable, I stop challenging myself, I stop looking for better ways to do things and I stop learning because I’ve already seen it all. I keep hitting the same walls over and over, which basically impacts my work happiness. It’s just how my brain works. Of course, I could train my brain into a different mindset, where I do feel happy with the current circumstances. But it’s not what I truly want. I truly believe that we have a great influence on designing the life we really want to have. So why wouldn’t I apply this to my career as well?

It’s obvious that this article is about me hitting that comfort level, and therefore I’ve been looking for a change for a few months now.

Two months back I found a job offer which got my energy flowing again. I applied to the job and started a process of many interviews and a lot of waiting (totaling 2 months). The process was mentally exhausting sometimes but was nonetheless needed to do.

And with success!

As of last week, I officially quit my job and will start my next one in 7 weeks from now.

I’m still on my little cloud of joy right now, feeling excited by all the new challenges that are waiting for me. But quitting the job was more difficult than I thought.

For 3.5 years I have had the pleasure to work for a company that is a joy to work for. Looking back, a lot of the frustration I’ve had sometimes isn’t too blame on the company or its people. It’s just that it wasn’t a good fit for me personally, anymore.

Telling my manager that I had found another opportunity somewhere else… I never forget the surprised look on his face, and later the guilt that came sipping in when I thought that my value to the company might have been bigger than I anticipated. Realizing that those 3.5 years of learning some great lessons, meeting amazing people and working on challenging projects would now all be left behind. It’s strange how, although you know the job isn’t right anymore, you already started to miss it when you announce to quit.

I still have a few weeks left to transfer my knowledge and expertise to my colleague (who started out 1 month ago), but I’ve already started to feel a calm of not getting annoyed of what’s happening anymore. It all doesn’t matter now.

What will change

The best thing about a new job is the excitement of not yet knowing what lies ahead of you. All the ideas that will still be fresh and the various things there are there to learn. I had the fortune to have 6 weeks left of holiday leave so it won’t be needed to sit out my notice period of 2 months. I will still need to work 4 weeks and have a resting period of 10 days before I start my new job.

Besides the substantive shift in my career, this change will have an impact on 2 other things as well, my salary and my commute.

The first is that I will receive a 20% increase compared to my current monthly salary. Additionally, the bonus possibility is larger as well, although subject to a good performance obviously. Most of it, if not all, will go directly to our investment portfolio to fund our journey towards financial independence. Our savings rate will go up massively, without even needing to cut any expenses.

The second part isn’t actually that enjoyable. My commute will be somewhat like sitting in a box, gliding along on the highway with the rest of the working bees. My next employment will be in Amsterdam, meaning I will have to drive for 40 minutes with no traffic. Instead of using the bike and be in the office within 10 minutes. The plus side is that I get reimbursed for the cost by my employer. So, not a total loss there. I will also be able to listen to a whole lot more podcasts in 80 minutes every day. The time will be put to good use. It’s something I have to get used to, but not

There will be one major expense that still is needed to be made though. Our current car isn’t fit for the job to bring me to work every day. To explain: every time I drive that old thing, I’m afraid it’s falling apart in little pieces.

We bought our current car last year, as a replacement for a luxury car we still had to sell first. It was meant to only temporary. And until now, it has fulfilled its duty with honor. In the coming 6 weeks, I will look for another car to buy, favorably a small, economical and second-hand one that will last a bit longer than 1 year.

The job that lies ahead of me is a big step up and in my level of interest: strategic marketing. It’s something where all the things that I love about a job come together. For the next few years, I’m set.

Post navigation

25 thoughts on “A Change in Course – Quitting my Job and on to The Next”

Good news, congratulations! I recognize the feelings you describe about the need for a challenge and missing the people when you announce to leave..
Up with the savings rate, sorry tobhear about your commute.

Congratulations on the move! It’s great to have a mindset of yours not to stay in your comfort zone. I definitely know that it’s hard to change and improve if you feel comfortable in your current place.

Very nice to have a new opportunity on strategic level! I hope that you are not dissapointed in the extra traveling time? One of the reasons, we moved closer to my job. The 20% income raise will be lost against the extra traveling time, and probably together with the extra car costs get you on almost the same income per hour. Still the new challenge will be biggest advantage I hope 😉

The new challenge (and the money of course) make up for the commute big time. I have been living almost next to the office the last 3 years. And although it’s nice, it was the least important reason for liking the job 😉 The new commute is doable, so wouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Congratulations! The new job sounds very interesting and I think it’s awesome that you actually get out of your comfort zone and move on to a new challenge when you feel like you have everything under control. Most people wouldn’t do that, I think!

Congrats on the new job! And the big increase as well. I went though that same process a year or so ago. Was bitter sweet leaving the old job and people behind, but on to bigger and better things. Sometimes life gets in the way of blogging and that is understandable because it is more important. Best of luck to you in your new adventure. Thanks for sharing.

Congratulations on the new opportunity and I hope it is everything that you want it to be. You’ll love the new pay increase and I’m sure you will find a creative way to offset the costs associated with your commute. I can understand your feeling about being comfortable and watching things plateau. I am going through that right now. Best of luck in this exciting new chapter.

Congrats on the new job! (Something to add to the list of commons; I started mine this week 🙂 ). A 20% pay rise is great and I’m sure the extra money will go to good place. Get the most out of it; well done!